Spiritual Thought: The great commandment

This week we attended a different ward for my sweet cousin's missionary farewell. That meant a relief society I've never been to before and somehow that made it easier to pay attention (read: they have less babies to play with than our ward does).

Beautiful typography from Jael Millan

This was the topic: The greatest commandment is to love the Lord your God with all your heart. We talked about what these means and one thing in particular stuck out to me.

Putting God before myself is a concept I may not be excellent at in practice, but it's definitely a concept that I understand and can work on on a daily basis.

Putting God before family is hard. I find that a lot of times I am far less willing to do things that are adversely affect my family. Case in point: Our mommy group of friends has been talking lately about how difficult it is to switch to the 11:30 to 2:30 time for church. Some options discussed include leaving church early in order to get in a nap time. I was seriously tempted by that option because all heck breaks loose if Em misses a nap. Or another {general} example: I joke often that Hans will never get called into a bishopric because of me. I have a hard time with callings that make families spend time so much time apart.

Both of these are good examples of this principle. It's not a choosing between good and bad. It's a choice between good and best. And it seems easier to make that choice when it's just me that's affected, but much harder when it requires sacrifices from my family members.

So it gave me a lot to think about. And work on. A simple commandment, not so simple to accomplish. Line upon line, right?